


BORDERLINE

by SingingVio



Series: BORDERLINE Series [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-06 01:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21218021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingVio/pseuds/SingingVio
Summary: Your name is JOHN EGBERT. You’re an HEIR of BREATH from SKAIA. You’re THIRTEEN years old. You have only two real friends, and those are the KNIGHTS of TIME and BLOOD, your personal guards. You’re VERY IMPORTANT and your CORONATION is in a week. Also, you have an ARRANGED MARRIAGE with another HEIR, the HEIR OF DOOM of ALTERNIAN heritage. You live in a world of gold, praise, and awe from others. You couldn’t ask for anything more, or that’s what everyone says.You also HATE YOUR LIFE.





	BORDERLINE

**Author's Note:**

> I'm too lazy to tag everything but please read this or at least try.

A young, thirteen-year-old boy stands in his royal quarters. It is his birthday today. He’s been alive for thirteen years, but only today will he be given a name. What will--

Wait, no, that’s not right.

Your name is JOHN EGBERT and you’re the HEIR of BREATH. You were named right after you were born like EVERY OTHER GODDAMN KID IN SKAIA AND ALSO ALTERNIA PROBABLY. Like a normal person. Do we really need to do this introduction thing? I mean, you already know all about yourself… nah, it doesn’t matter. Let’s get on with the story.

A knock on the door sounds in your room, and you jump. A familiar voice is heard through the gold. “Hey, Egb-- I mean, Heir. You up yet? I lost a bet with Dave and so I need to wake you up this morning instead if you’re not already. Awake, I mean.”

You open the door to see one of your best friends: The Knight of Blood, one of two personal guards you were assigned. “I’m guessing you’re lying with the way you’re looking over your shoulder.” you sigh, grinning. The Knight of Blood, Karkat, glares at you.

“All right, fine. I’m hiding from Kankri.” he mutters. You look around, over his shoulder. You don’t see the Seer of Blood yet. “Uh-- Can I hide in here?”

“Sure.” you nod, and Karkat pushes past you at lightning speed. He flops down onto your bed and sighs. “Uh. I see Kankri.”

“CLOSE THE DAMN DOOR THEN!” Karkat screeches, and you do. Of course, you don’t think Kankri is really looking for him, probably the Maid of Space.

“So.” you say. “My coronation’s in a week.”

“No shit, Sherlock.” Karkat says, pulling out a small knife and cutting his wrists. This would be a sign of depression, but, well…

Karkat watches the blood from his hand drip down to the carpet, then bandages his wrist quickly and starts concentrating on the blood on the ground. It moves around in different patterns-- his way of calming down. He doesn’t have depression, you’d know if he would. He doesn’t keep anything in his head for long. Also, he heals himself after every cut, he’s fine.

“Isn’t someone supposed to help me with that?”

“Yeah, the Maid of Space.”

“Isn’t Porrim doing something else?”

“Nah. She’s not.”

“Oh, okay.”

Karkat puts the blood back into his body by SWALLOWING IT GOOD GOD-- uh-- and heals his wound with the same magic. He stands up, the cape on his shoulders shifting a little bit. “Want to find Dave?”

“Sure!” You jump up and fly out of the room, Karkat close behind. “Where do you think he is?”

“Probably doing something he shouldn’t with that Prince.”

“You mean Dirk?”

“Yeah, and Dirk’s younger brother-- Knight of Heart?”

“Never heard of him.”

“You wouldn’t, he’s under the radar. REALLY under the radar.”

The two of you fly through the town, and you wave to some people you know-- all of them high-class, of course. Tavros (Page of Breath), Terezi (Seer of Mind), Jane (Maid of Life)...

You make it to the back alleyways, where only the lowest of classes live. The Prince, Rogue, and Thief. Based on the name, you’d think Princes were higher up on the Class Tiers, but NOPE. You’re DEAD WRONG there! They were placed WAY lower after an incident involving a past Prince of Rage-- not good, and you’d rather not know about it at all.

You see a Rogue, Thief, and Prince there, talking. One you know, two you don’t. Not well, anyway. Karkat perks right up though.

“Hey, Roxy! Vriska! Haven’t seen you around lately!” he says. The Thief of Light turns and smirks at him.

“Hey, Karkles. How’s it going with the Heir of Breath? As his personal guard? I’ll bet it’s reeeeeeeeeal BORING.” she teases.

“You’re just jealous you’re a Thief instead, Vriska.” he replies, rolling his eyes. The Prince nods at the two of you.

“Hey. How is it?” he asks.

“Dirk, have you seen Dave?” you ask. “We can’t find him.”

“Yeah, he’s at Hal’s workshop. Thanks for the greeting.” he nods at you. You’re a bit scared of Dirk, really, because he’s powerful. A Prince of Heart-- able to rip your soul right out of your body. Scary.

All Princes have metal cuff-like bracelets on their hands, though, making it so they can’t use their magic.

“Thanks, Dirk!” you say, waving as Karkat drags you across the way to a small hut that you call the Workshop for no reason other than how that is literally what it is. You hear an explosion from inside and smoke-- bright pink smoke-- billows out from under the door, curling around your feet.

“I told you not to add it until the concoction turned BLUE!”

“You said red, Hal!”

“I said blue, you incompetent, idiotic, red-loving Time user!”

You stare at the scene before you. There are the Knights of Time and Heart, both covered head to toe in bright pink goo that was probably the source of the smoke. Hal, Knight of Heart, throws his hands up and stalks over to the corner dramatically. Dave walks over to him and starts picking pink goo out of the Heart user’s fluffy white hair.

“What the fuck ha-- actually, I don’t want to know what you two nookfondling idiots got yourselves into.” Karkat mutters.

“Karkat, your matesprite is an idiot.” Hal says.

“He’s NOT my matesprite!” only you can hear the barely-a-whisper ‘not yet’ he says after that.

“Still.” he sighs. Hal then seems to notice you and immediately straightens up. “Are you the Heir of Breath?” he asks, wide-eyed. You nod slowly. He quickly shoves Dave’s hands off his head and starts fumbling with it himself, brushing himself off best he can. He holds a hand out to you but quickly pulls it back to his side. “Nice to meet you, I’m the Knight of Heart, Hal Strider.”

“I’m the Heir of Breath, John Egbert! It’s nice to meet you, too!” you hold your hand out and Hal flushes, probably overwhelmed because, well… you’re an Heir. The highest class, other than…

The forbidden classes.

Karkat coughs. “Dave. We should get going, John needs to meet with everyone else for the coronation next week. And you’re. You know. His other guard?”

Dave nods, pushing his shades up his nose (with his middle finger, which Karkat notices and glares at him for) and turns to Hal. “I’ll catch you later, bro.” of course, not literally, Dave’s an only child, but he calls every friend that. Even Terezi, who’s definitely a girl. A strange girl who eats chalk and licks everything she sees, so to speak, but still a girl.

“Yeah, bye Dave.” Hal says, turning back to his work and not staring at you in awe as the three of you exit. Nope.

When you get back to the castle, Kankri stomps up to you three, his Seer robes fluttering behind him. You’ve always been jealous of the Seer outfits, they look way more comfortable to wear compared to your itchy Heir outfit, and definitely freer to move around in because of how it’s just a loose tunic and skirt over regular clothes. It is nice-looking still, though, because Seers are pretty admired for their abilities.

“Where WERE you?” he asks Karkat, glaring at him. You wince a little, Kankri may seem mild-mannered and peaceful, but he is RUTHLESS when things don’t go according to plan.

“Calm down, Kankri, it’s not my fault! Dave ran off!”

“Oh, I know that, I can SEE the guilt radiating off him. I’m a Seer of Blood! I was asking where you went, Porrim’s looking for the Heir and she couldn’t find him!” aaaaand of course he doesn’t address you, as it’s really frowned upon to actually TALK to Heirs if you’re lower class. Which everyone is. Unless you’re a personal guard or a childhood friend. Or another heir.

“We were in the back alleys where all the Thieves and Rogues hang out.”

Kankri’s glare gets darker and Karkat flinches. He's the one that has to deal with his brother’s rage later. Kankri sighs, shaking his head. “Karkat…” he mutters. “Go on, Porrim’s waiting for you.”

Karkat grabs your hand and pulls you after him, Dave following close behind. You ignore Kankri’s offended gasp, as physical contact is ALSO not allowed. Whatever, he’s lower class than you and also kind of a jerk. His thought on your friendship with his brother doesn’t really mean shit to you right now. You just hope Porrim isn’t mad at you, too.

“Ah, Johnny! There you are!” she says. She doesn’t care about formalities, really, and you’re kind of confused on how this tattoo-and-piercing-covered sort-of-rebellious girl who doesn’t care about rules is friends with Kankri. Although you’re almost positive they’re moirails and not just friends, though Kankri will deny it.

“Hey, Porrim, sorry we’re a bit late… Dave got in a mishap involving bright pink slime and then Kankri scolded us.” Porrim frowns.

“What kind of mishap-- never mind, I don’t want to know.” she pulls out a measuring tape and motions for you to hold out your arm. You do so, and she starts measuring you. You need even more formal robes for the coronation, and the Maryams are well-known for their seamstress skills. “Oh, and I want to give you a heads-up for what Jane’s gonna tell you. What’s your sexual orientation?”

“Uh.” that’s a weird question. You don’t think much of it… “Straight, I guess, like lots of other people? Why do you need to know?”

“Just wondering…” Dave gives you a look through his ridiculous shades. Lie. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Porrim waves you off, jotting down some more measurements. “You’re done, I don’t think you have anything else planned… except for lunch with Jane in an hour. You can only bring one of your guards, though. It’s a private thing.”

You nod, and wave goodbye to Porrim as you walk off towards your room. Dave, always a showy motherfucker, seems to teleport off with the chime of a grandfather clock. Really, he just stopped time and walked to your room and is probably helping himself to your junk food snacks. You sigh and walk with Karkat to your room and pray that Dave doesn’t mess all your shit up.

You find him sitting on your bed and eating a snack. “Hey, John. Took you long enough.” he says.

“You know, one of these days I’ll run out of food and you’ll find something squishy in your pillowcase, and you’ll be like ‘what’s this?’ and it’ll be because I put a turd in there.” you say, deadpan. Dave gives you a look. “And it won’t be my turd. It’ll be a horse turd.”

“John, that’s disgusting, what the fuck.” he mutters. You laugh, and Karkat snorts with laughter as well. “So, what do you think Jane wants?”

“Dunno.” you say. Karkat walks over to where Dave’s sitting on your bed and lays next to him, curling up and putting his head in Dave’s lap. Dave ruffles his hair and you hear a gentle purr from Karkat. He’s like a cat and you know that if you tell anyone about how he does this a lot he will rip you limb from limb and manage not to get caught.

“Who do you want to go with you? Me or Karkat?”

“Uh.” Damnit, Dave, you hate choosing between him and Karkat and he knows it. “Neither? I mean, it’s optional, and Jane’s there. She’s powerful, I’m powerful, I’ll be fine. So neither of you really need to be there.” your grin turns mischievous. “Besides, Dave, we both know how if I’m gone, you and Karkat will be alone for two hours. Alone, Dave.”

Dave flushes and hits your arm. Karkat glares at him, since him moving jostled Karkat’s head a bit. You just laugh. “You two are so CLOSE to being matesprites, just go for it already, I don’t understand what’s taking you so long!”

“Fuck off John.” Karkat mutters, closing his eyes again.

“I can’t fuck off, this is my room.”

“I meant fuck off over here so Dave doesn’t need to move much to hit you again if you decide to be an idiot.”

“Uh okay.” you flop down on the bed on the other side of Dave, lying down. Dave ruffles your hair and you pull his hands off your head, he’s going to mess up the hair that took you so long to brush this morning!

After a few minutes of just laying there in a pile of people, you finally sit up. “I should probably go if I want to make it on time, Jane’s probably waiting.” you say. Dave nods, Karkat asleep and still in his lap.

“See ya later, Heir of Breath.”

“Goodbye, Knight of Time.” you say, and smirk. “If you kiss Karkat I want a picture of his face afterwards ‘cause I’m sure it’s gonna be ridiculous.”

“LEAVE.” Dave says. You laugh and fly off. You were one-hundred percent serious.

You make it to the gardens, where Jane’s sitting on a bench. She spots you and gives a small smile. You’re so glad she isn’t an older sister who only sees you as someone to surpass-- though she does also SORT OF see you like that.

“Hey, Jane. What did you want to see me for?” you ask, floating up to a branch big enough to hold your weight. You sit in the tree above her, picking an apple and taking a bite.

She sighs. “It’s about the coronation… well, not really. Sort of. You know how Skaia is having some… problems with Alternia? Like, you see some Alternians here, but not much. Karkat, Kankri, Terezi, Vriska, Porrim, Kanaya. But most live back in Alternia. Not here.” you nod. Where is she going with this?

“Well… Dad came up with a plan. Sort of. To help ease the tension between the two kingdoms. So we won’t have to worry about another war. So… Alternia’s leaders-- you know there are four, The Signless, The Psiioniic, The Disciple, and The Condesce-- well, they’ve decided on something that involves you and one of their descendants…”

Oh boy, NOW you know where this is going, and you don’t like it, not one bit. “This is kind of what I need to talk to you about.” she mutters, twirling her fingers on the top of one of her thighs like she does when she’s nervous. “I hope you like Doom users, because you’ll be living with one for a long time.”

When you get back to the room, Dave grins at you. “Hey, what--” he frowns when he sees your expression. “John? You okay?” you wordlessly flop down next to him-- right on Karkat’s legs. Said Knight jolts up and shoves you off, and you go to the other side of Dave.

“Hey, Fucker, you look like you picked a fight with a Denizen. And lost.” he says, squinting at you. Denizens were giant monsters, titan-like, who occasionally showed up and… well, tried to kill people. Of course, they were always stopped. Thankfully.

“Shut up, Karkat, he looks upset.” Dave says, lightly hitting his fellow guard’s head and then running his fingers through the shorter one’s hair. “John, what’s going on? Is it whatever Jane said?” you nod silently.

“Well, what is it?” Karkat asks you. You sigh and stare at the ground.

“I’m getting married.” you mutter. The two stare at you, wide eyed. Dave laughs.

“Well, uh, congratulations? Why are you upset about that?” he asks. You glare at him, then turn your gaze to the floor.

“Dave, you’re not an Heir, only a Knight. You wouldn’t--” he puts a hand over your mouth.

“We’re also you’re friends and if you TELL US, we’d try our best to understand.” he scolds you. You sigh again and look at him, taking his hands off your mouth.

“Fine… I’m getting married…” you start. “To someone from Alternia. For peace. And, to make it worse, I have never met him in my life, and ALSO, he’s nineteen! NINETEEN, Dave! I’m thirteen, and not even that! I’ll be thirteen in a week! That’s over six years! I’m being MARRIED OFF to someone I’ve never met who’s WAY older than me like a GIFT, an item! To stop a war that MIGHT NOT EVEN HAPPEN IF THIS DIDN’T ANYWAY!” your voice gets louder and louder as you go on, and you take a deep breath. “And it’s two days after the coronation… I meet him at the ceremony, then two days later, we get married.”

“Oh God.” Karkat mutters. “What the fuck?”

You all jump at a knock on the door. “Um, excuse me, Heir of Breath? Uh, Miss Jane-- er, the Maid of Life-- uh, she told me to, um, check on you?” asked a voice. Karkat groans.

“God, Tavros. Come on in.” he says. The door opens to show a Page of Breath, Tavros Nitram. He stands there nervously, fidgeting with his hands.

“Hey, Tavros. I’m fine.” you say, kind of leaning on Dave at this point. You don’t CARE what this might look like, you with your head on Dave’s shoulder with Karkat kind of sleeping against the two of you. You just want to sleep. “You can tell Jane that.”

“Oh, uh, okay, um, I’ll go then… congratulations, Heir… I guess? I mean, marriage is good, right? I just hope the guy isn’t a horrible person… he probably isn’t. Uh, bye.” Tavros stutters, and leaves the room.

\---

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments/kudos! This is my first HS fic... I hope I did well!


End file.
